Georg von Winterfeld

Georg von Winterfeld (born April 23, 1580 in Dallmin , Prignitz , † December 1, 1657 in Freyenstein ) was the Kurbrandenburg Privy Councilor , Landvogt der Neumark , Komtur zu Schivelbein , senior or master master of the Brandenburg Ballei of the Order of St. John . As lord of the dominions Dallmin, Neuhausen, Freyenstein, Vahrnow, Neuendorf, Kehrberg, Klein Linde etc. including all church patronage, high and low jurisdiction, high and low hunting, he was one of the most influential and wealthy gentlemen in Brandenburg.

Life

Georg von Winterfeld received a strictly scientific upbringing for that time, like his father Detloff von Winterfeld (1527–1611) before. Georg studied at the University of Wittenberg and completed several educational trips.

Despite the ensuing turmoil of the Thirty Years' War , he issued court orders for his lords in 1621 and had his extensive estates and offices administered by his own officials, such as Winterfeld judges, bailiffs and bailiffs.

In 1597 Winterfeld was made a Knight of St. John and was appointed Commander of Schievelbein in Neumark. There he made major changes to the church and the castle. From 1627 he assumed responsibility for the Neumark as governor. His father, who was also Commander of Schievelbein and Commander of the Order of St. John, had already held this position. In advance, Georg von Winterfeld was appointed to the Brandenburg Privy Council. The Thirty Years' War and the plague devastated not only Neumark and Schievelbein, but also his Prignitz estates, which he painstakingly rebuilt. In 1642 Georg von Winterfeld took up the vacant position of Lord Master of the Order of St. John and, as a senior member of the Order, took over the difficult reconstruction of the Order's possessions. He must have succeeded in doing this quite well during the turmoil of that time, so that the Order was able to pay off significant financial arrears on a pro-rata basis. He also ensured his successor in the order and pushed through the election of Johann Moritz Prince of Nassau-Siegen , Privy Councilor of Brandenburg, governor of Kleve, as the new master at the central seat of the order, Sonnenburg . Before that, Winterfeld proposed the Prince of Nassau to the Knight of St. John. Winterfeld then settled on his Prignitz possessions, where he died in 1657 at Freyenstein Castle.

literature

• Johann Brunnemann : Consilia sive responsa academica . Ed .: Samuel Stryk . Jeremias Schrey, Frankfurt an der Oder 1677, OCLC 165427183 , p. 501 ( digitized on the pages of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek ).
• Ludwig Gustav von Winterfeld : History of the family von Winterfeld . Second part, second volume. Damerow 1863, OCLC 833679242 , p. 495-522 ( Google Books ).
• Lieselott Enders : The Prignitz. History of a Kurmark landscape from the 12th to the 18th century (=  publications of the Brandenburg State Main Archives . Volume 38 ). Publishing house for Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2000, OCLC 46455956 .